Public school property flogged off for bargain basement price

The NSW Education department today auctioned off the former Enmore School for a mere 2.8 million dollars.

Save Our School members hand out information at the Auction of Enmore School held at The Rocks

“This is an appalling result for the community and a disgrace” said Clr Cathy Peters “this valuable property is worth far more than this and to sell it off at this bargain basement price shows the bloody mindedness of Minister Firth and local member and deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt.”

“When the costs of the sale and the refusal of the Government to lease the School over the six it has been vacant are taken into account, the school, a valuable public asset, has effectively been given away.”

“This shortsighted grab for cash has not yielded enough money to build another school in the Enmore / Newtown area or anywhere for that matter, nor does it represent the value of this building for the many young families and TAFE students who need its equivalent now and in the future”.

“Minister Tebbutt was recently praising the sandstone restoration occuring at the Australia Street Infants School and seemed to miss the irony that while she was grandstanding in front of this work, her
government was preparing to sell off the Enmore School site – an important heritage site that has played a major role in education for over 120 years”.

“All Marrickville Greens councillors condemn this sale and will continue to work actively to stop the Labor government selling off any more public property in the municipality.”

“Thanks to Carmel Tebbutt’s government, this
important public asset has been lost to the local community forever”.

Meta

The Marrickville and Petersham-Newtown Greens are the local groups for members of The Greens political party living in the Sydney suburbs of Dulwich Hill, Enmore, Lewisham, Marrickville, Newtown, Petersham, St Peters, Stanmore, Sydenham and Tempe.

All electoral comment on this site authorised by Richard Morrell 19 Eve Street Erskinville NSW